Subaru WRX Future Uncertain

KOMPAS.com - The future of Subaru's cult-hero WRX performance car is under a cloud following the unveiling of the brand's new Impreza sedan and hatchback.
The next-generation small car was revealed at the New York motor show last week - but there was no all-new performance model previewed, bringing the future of the WRX into doubt.
Following a statement from Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley, it seems WRX enthusiasts could well have reason to worry. Rowley told Drive there is "no timeframe" for the next-generation WRX, and says the brand has no plans to offer a turbocharged performance version of the Impreza small car.

"When you see Impreza launched in Australia or in any other market in the world, it will purely be the naturally aspirated Impreza - there will be no turbocharged WRX or STI version of that car," Rowley says.
Rowley says the brand's decision to split the WRX nameplate from the Impreza range - which it did in September 2010 when the updated "widebody" WRX and automatic STI models were introduced - was a conscious one.
"WRX and STI continue as is for the foreseeable future, but they are now separate models from the Impreza range," says Rowley. "Basically, WRX and STI become, to all intents, part of a performance stable, leaving Impreza as the mainstream naturally-aspirated [non-turbocharged] small car.
"It was a conscious decision to separate [the current WRX and STI] from [the Impreza] range," he says. "It's not something that we've hidden away or anything, it was a conscious decision made quite some time ago to create that specific performance stable."
Asked whether the next-generation WRX could be the Japanese brand's joint-venture coupe model which is being developed with Toyota (often referred to as the "Toyobaru" coupe and previewed at the Geneva motor show in see-through concept form), Rowley was quick to flatten the idea.
"No, because that car doesn't have a turbocharged engine - it has a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated engine," he says.
As Drive reported last week, Subaru's version of the car will be unique to the concept models already shown by Toyota and its youth-oriented sub-brand Scion, with the brand's project general manager Akihide Takeuchi saying the car is likely to be unveiled in the northern spring of 2012.
"We're working on it, and it is progressing very well," Takeuchi told Drive at the New York motor show. "Subaru is thinking about the aura we want to give the car. We are still tuning the car."
Subaru Australia says the new rear-wheel-drive sports car is not confirmed for local launch as yet. David Rowley says there is no timeframe for a decision at this stage because introducing that model would mean a shift away from the brand's current all-wheel-drive-only mantra.